While we're done covering the automotive action from the main show floor of the Cobo Center, the Detroit Motor Show continues to make headlines, albeit for the wrong reasons. A BMW 750i xDrive (or 750iL xDrive) worth either $94,000 or $140,000 (depending on the news site....) was stolen near the Westin Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit. And what has that got to do with the Detroit Show, we hear you ask?
Well, the 7-Series was part of a fleet of BMW sedans that were used by the Bavarian automaker's executives and guests during the press days of the show. According to Police reports, the gray bimmer was being loaded into a transporter bound for New Jersey when the handler stepped away momentarily leaving the keys in the vehicle. That's when the crafty thieves stepped in and drove away with the 7er. Video report after the jump.
As previously reported, BMW has officially green-lighted a production version of the Vision ED plug-in hybrid sports car. So, it was only a matter of time before new information on the eco-friendly model would surface online. First we saw some pictures hit the Teamspeed forum, followed by this here video, but we’re not entirely convinced that both are part of a lucky scoop.
The quality of the photos lead us to think that we’re dealing with a viral and the fact that no one on BMW’s police-escorted crew noticed that their photo shoot is being recorded in an empty race track in Abu Dhabi doesn’t seem likely. Nevertheless, this is more proof that the Bavarian maker is ramping for an official presentation, probably due at a major international auto show this year, with a production model following in 2013.
The Abu Dhabi video is available below, along with two more clips, one showing how the Vision ED’s – allegedly named i8 in some reports – hybrid powertrain works and a new commercial featuring the same car.
So here's how this 'fail' story goes: A female driver gets stuck on a patch of ice / snow in her automatic BMW 1-Series. After a few unsuccessful attempts of trying to free the Bavarian hatch from behind the steering wheel, she decides to leave it in gear and give it a push herself. While the BMW driver eventually managed to clear out of the slippery part of the road, she ended up in another mess [...]. See what happens next in the video after the break.
Yep, that’s not a typo: BMW did actually build an E23 735i Touring and it showed it at the 1980 Frankfurt Auto Show to gauge the public’s reaction. Unfortunately (or not), the car didn’t make it into production and was slowly forgotten, up until ten years ago. That’s when this example, one of only two custom built prototypes, first surfaced on eBay with 8,179 miles (13,163 km) on the odometer. Now, it has been posted on the auction site once again, for an opening bid of US $7,000.
The collector who originally imported it to the U.S. sold it three years later and the current owner bought it last November. At that point the car had clocked up 9,002 miles (14,487 km) but wasn’t running.
However, this ultra-rare 7-Series, boasting an interesting green paintjob, tan cloth interior, manual sunroof, roof rack, alloy wheels and automatic transmission, wasn’t in a disastrous condition. A quick service brought it back to life and onto the road and, according to the seller, it has a Massachusetts December 2011 inspection sticker and was driven for only 40 extra miles (64 km).
Being a 30-year-old car, the 735i Touring isn’t flawless. Luckily, it only seems to suffer from some minor surface rust, both on the body and underneath, which can be easily mended.
Other than that, the interior and engine bay appear to be neat and the owner’s detailed description of every fault, accompanied by revealing pictures, should be evidence enough that there’s no foul play involved.
Currently, the bid stands at US $7,600, which is pocket change for something as rare as this. And even if it sells for double the amount, the buyer can rest assured that this car will never depreciate. In fact, it’s a sound investment and, with some mild restoration, it can be turned into a great gem of automotive heritage.
Imagine a dystopian future where companies use hidden flash units to burn their logos into the retinas of innocent, unknowing citizens. It has a sort of George Orwell / Philip K. Dick vibe to it, doesn’t it? Only this isn’t fantasy, this is real.
Before I elaborate, let me explain something. There’s a condition pervading the general public that advertisers hate more than anything else: ad blindness. In this, the 21st century, we are bombarded by so many advertisements from television, print media and the internet that we’ve learned to subconsciously ignore it. That’s right. We see the ads but we don’t process the content.
In the past, advertisers have been sneaky. They’ve used pop up ads, spam and humor to wear away our defenses. In response, we – the general public – have developed pop up blockers, spam filters and Carlos Mencia. So those crafty marketing cretins at BMW (presumably not the same ones that thought up the horrendous 'dontblogaboutthis' campaign) have come up with a new technique: temporarily burning their logo into cinemagoers retinas.
Allow me to explain with an example; it’s night and you’ve having your photograph taken. The camera flash goes off, and for several seconds afterwards you’re left with a bright square in your field of vision every time you close your eyes.
BMW used the same principle, but placed a cut-out of their logo in front of the flash. The flash goes off and the logo is left hanging there behind your eyelids for a short time.
Great, huh? Only these people didn’t know about it, and the flash was hidden behind the cinema screen. Sounds like something out of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, about an organization that (among other things) freely experiments on people for some half-though-out, scientific purpose. I don’t know what BMW is calling this new technique, though one phrase comes to my mind: eyeball rape. I give it ten years before they start doing this at Times Square.
